Mission Spiti 2015 - Day 07

Kaza – Langza – Hikkim – Komic – Demul – Tashigong – Gette – Kibber – Chicham – Ki – Kaza

As per the program, we left at sharp 08:00 for Hotel Spiti to pick the RJ 27 Team. Good for us, the sun was shining brighter than ever and it gave us the much needed warmth from the yet cold temperature. Our first stop was Langza and to our happiness, our driver could tread the slush quite well. The slush was also not too bad today and was getting even better with the bright sun.

Freshly Snowed Peaks

Clouds & Sun

Sachinji enjoying the Sun in Freezing Wind

Langza Village

Langza - the World's Highest Motorable Village

Clicking pictures, we went on to pass by Hikkim followed by Komic. On the way, we took numerous sudden stops to spot the Birds. Now we were in company of 3 members of Indian Birding Association. They politely advised us to reprimand them when we feel their birding stops had got beyond tolerance. At first, we felt amused at their excitement of spotting birds and then embarrassed when they uttered color names like scarlet-necked and chestnut-tailed which, to us brothers, was completely alien as our comprehension of colors was limited to the primary, secondary and tertiary colors. We belong to that group of people who feel bemused when looking at our wives’ new fuchsia footwear and for whom the purple does not look much different than violet.

Komic

Komic Gompa

Komic Gompa

Gorge outside Chicham

A Herd of Yaks

Chicham getting connected by Asia's highest Concrete Bridge
Is it Good or Bad?

Trek from Ki to Kaza

Our Horse at KayCee Lodge

Practice Contentment

Are you well Educated or well Traveled?

It is You who belong to this Land

Hikkim Village

Komic to Tashigong

Gorge outside Chicham

Bull-fight

Anyway, we took our time to assimilate – not the birding information – but their need for stopping the car abruptly and it was after Komic Gompa, that I could bring out the Task Manager inside me and announce “People: Now we have targets to keep. It is 11:00 and we are at Komic. We have to reach Tashizom at Kibber for Lunch by 13:30 after visiting Tashigong, Gette, Chicham & Kibber.” Everybody obeyed me and our Driver easily maneuvered through every place. The landscape around Chicham was very different and my brother could easily declare that to be much better than US Grand Canyon.

We had a wet filling lunch at Tashizom where the attendant charged me lesser for the Thukpa than yesterday. I did not mind. For the sunshine, there were more vehicles today on the roads than yesterday as well as parked outside Tashizom. The brooding spectacled 55 year old that I had spotted lurking at Deyzor the last night was at Tashizom with his family. He commented about our rush to drive 2000+ km in a week and advised us to take life easy which I did not appreciate especially when he told us that he was in the Army. Inside I was just defending myself “Let us exchange our lives first and then talk about driving easy. And then too, we are just driving 600km on the first day and the last. All other days have 150km on average only.” When that Retd Army Official left before us, he came inside to bid us a special goodbye and wish us luck for the drive ahead – my brother, knowing the look at my face, consoled me “See, Ankit, I did not go to him. He came to me to wish me luck. That means, regardless of his comment about our rush, he was appreciative and perspired of what we were doing”.

Driving back, we took the decision of getting down before Ki and walk to Kaza. All of them asked for the definitiveness of our decision to which we replied “Do have the free GLHT!” Inspite of taking 2 shortcuts in the walk for more than an hour, Kaza was still 8km ahead of me. It was quite sunny, a little cold and all my clothes were wet because of the sweat. I heaved a sigh of relief when the car picked us again but I was yet to realize the after effects of a brisk walk at that altitude. My head did not stop aching till after sleep. On reaching the Kay-Cee, I got on to my tasks ahead and asked Ritesh to boil as much water possible for me to have a deep clean shave with a good bath. I had decided not to take bath the next morning before our scheduled 04:00 departure for Manali. Clearing all the accounts with Jamaica, I did not realize what I realized in Delhi that I had forgotten to click a special picture with him for my souvenir. The chef at Deyzor treated my brother’s demand very well with his pasta and bruschetta bread apart from the regular momos.